Relationship building is one of the most fundamental ways to develop your business and your vendors are an often overlooked, true partner in your business. By building relationships with your vendors and those around, you have the potential to bring in new customers and/or clients, while also increasing awareness of your company branding.

The people with whom you work directly on your products and services are the ones who will benefit the most from your success. By taking the time to get to know them, you’ll find a whole host of opportunities you didn’t realize were there.

Always look for great ways to offer your vendors rewards for helping grow your business and everyone wins. One of ways you can accomplish this is by offering performance-based incentives that are much larger than their normal charges.

Here’s the step-by-step process to creating a partnership with a vendor:

1. Approach all the vendors you do business with and ask them for their impression of your business and how they think you might improve.
2. Create a generous (from your vendor’s perspective) incentive plan together that incorporates their suggestions into the plan;
3. Be certain that your incentive plan is clear, concise and easy to track. This will increase cooperation from the vendors and ultimately yield higher performance levels;
4. Promote subsequent sales rather than focusing solely on the initial sale. By doing this you can allocate more of the profit from the initial sale to your vendors and earn higher profits off the back end products. Consider the following:
   1. Boosting future sales;
   2. Upselling better quality and more profitable products and/or services;
   3. Cross-selling additional products.
5. Create an incentive plan that is irresistible to your vendors by offering generous, exclusive compensation.

Think of all the vendors you work with and the creative ways you can put together an incentive plan that entices them to be part of your business sucess. Find innovative ways to make use of their talents and connections and you will both reap the rewards.

Creating an incentive plan doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Reach out to me for assistance in developing your incentive plan for maximum results.